Another Scarlet Letter: Age

I don’t know about you, but I am unbearably tired of phrases like “aging gracefully.”  Or worse yet:  “Embracing your age.”  Define please, could you? And while you’re at it, please tell me why such phrases are often accompanied by a photo of a woman with white hair. It seems the last bastion of socially […]

Read Full Post »

The Marriage and Motherhood Myths

On a recent trip to D. C., I was out to dinner with some long-lost family friends and their very accomplished, 20-something daughter who’d just moved to the city after earning her Masters of Public Administration and subsequently landing a seriously fat job working for the government, something she’s always wanted to do. She’d come […]

Read Full Post »

Done in by the Language

So Wednesday I had an interview with Kathryn Zox on VoiceAmerica and she asked me if I could think of a more positive word for “compromise.”  And to be honest — well,  it was early in the morning — I could not. Can you?  Thing is, life is all about the trade-offs.  But “compromise”?  It’s […]

Read Full Post »

Of Age and Aunts and Betty White

So I was roaming around The Daily Beast yesterday — ahem, looking for intellectual commentary — when I was sidetracked by a Popeater link entitled thus: Betty White: You’re Never Too Old for Sex. And so of course I clicked. What I found was a little riff on a cover story from AARP magazine in […]

Read Full Post »

Marriage, Motherhood, and Math: What Makes a Woman?

A bunch of stuff in my inbox had me pondering a rather big question over my morning cuppa Josephine today, dear reader: What does it mean to be a woman? Can a woman who opts out of marriage or motherhood, or into math, still be considered feminine? And how do such not-quite-totally-conscious hang-ups play into […]

Read Full Post »

Welcome to the Too-Much-Information Age

This too many choices thing? It’s not just us. No less than e-behemoth Microsoft has recognized that our era would be more accurately described as the too-much-information age. And the more information, the harder the decision.

Read Full Post »

Making the Personal Political

The Feminine Mystique is 50 years old; do you know where your equality is? Here’s a hint: if you’re a woman living in America, it’s still pretty far out of reach. Because for as far as women have come in the ol’ US of A, the fact is that the state of affairs here–compared to […]

Read Full Post »

Enough Already With The End of Men

Something has been nagging at me ever since I read Christina Hoff Sommers’ Opinionator piece in Sunday’s New York Times. Did you catch it? It’s yet another essay lamenting the disconnect between today’s school system and, well, the nature of boys. Her piece, which links declining male achievement with grade school culture, is pegged to […]

Read Full Post »

Repeat After Me: Just Say No.

If we want to close the ambition gap, a good first step might be learning how to shake our heads. There’s this great quote from Feminist icon Germaine Greer: When we talk about women having it all, what they really have all of is the work.”  She was being somewhat facetious.   But then again, not […]

Read Full Post »

From Delhi to D.C.: What We Can Do in the Fight Against Gender Violence

It’s easy to be appalled by things that happen elsewhere: the brutal, horrifying rape of the 23 year-old Indian student, so violent that she died of her injuries. Malala Yousufzai, the 15 year-old Pakistani schoolgirl/activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban. It’s easy to feel a sort of removed pity in the […]

Read Full Post »